Vulnerable patients with Alzheimer's are being unnecessarily drugged to control their behaviour, according to a major new report from an influential committee of MPs. It is expected to recommend that all patients have their medication reviewed every three months to check that they are not being inappropriately sedated and stop the over-prescribing of drugs known to cause distressing, and sometimes fatal, side effects, including strokes.

Patients' groups have argued that anti-psychotic drugs, the 'chemical cosh', are given too often by nursing home staff who find dementia sufferers hard to handle. A report from the all-party group on dementia, chaired by Tory MP Jeremy Wright, to be published this month, is also expected to recommend that nursing home staff be specifically trained. The Department of Health is expected to adopt many of its ideas in a new strategy on dementia to be published in the autumn.

Wright said: 'You get the drug appropriately, and then you are left to languish on it for too long because nobody bothers to check ... It's clear there is a massive amount of over-prescribing going on. Up to 700,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia.